The sphinx

[vivy.nguyen05]

THE SPHINX

For any tourist visiting Egypt, there are two things that everyone must see. The first is the 137- meter-high Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest off all the pyramids in Egypt. The second is the Great Sphinx of Giza, a sculture with the body of a lion and the head of a man, which stands 20 meters tall and 73 meters long.

The origin of the Great Sphinx of Giza goes back 5,000 years. Although many sphinx sculptures have been found over the years, researchers belive that the Great Sphinx which guards the pyramids in Giza was actually the frist one to be made (around 2600-2500 B.C). The head of the Sphinx represents Khafre, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt at that time.

About two thousand years later, around 570 B.C., sand had covered all but the head of the Great Sphinx. The people living in the area had forgotten the history of the statue, so they imagined that the head represented the sun god Ra and began worshiping it. The son of Pharaoh Amenhotep II heard the head speak to him in a dream. The Sphinx’s head made him promise to clear the sand from the statue’s body. The son, Thutmose, kept his word and did what he was told in the dream. He also built walls around the statue to prevent the sand from covering it again. After all of the sand was cleared away, Thutmose made a large stone tablet that told the story of his dream. He placed this tablet between the two front feet of the Sphinx, where it stands to this day.

For hundreds of years, the Sphinx attracted people both as a religious monument and as a work of art. But eventually, the desert sand once again covered the Sphinx, leaving only the head visible. It was not until the 1800s that archaeologists began clearing the sand from the statue and began researching the long history of the Sphinx. At last, in the 1920s, all of the sand was finally cleared away and restoration work, which continues to this day, was begun.

The name “Sphinx” comes from an ancient Greek word, meaning “strangle”. According to Greek legend, the Sphinx was a demon with the body of a winged lion, and the head of a woman. She sat beside a road, and asked all people who passed her a riddle: “Which animal in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two, and on three in the evening?” She strangled anyone who couldn’t make sense of the question. The riddle was finally solved by the Greek king, Oedipus. The answer was man, who crawls on hands and knees as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and finally walks with a cane in old age. The Sphinx then threw herself from her high rock and died.

Extra (English – English dictionary):

Giza: a town in Egypt, now part of Cairo
Pharaoh: the title of the kings of ancient Egypt
Tablet: a flat piece of clay or stone with writing on it
Demon: an evil creature, a devil
Archaeologist: a person who studies historical people and cultures by looking at old things.
Cane: a stick made of wood or metal used to help a person walk.
Crawl: to move slowly and close to the ground.
Monument: a sculpture or building built in memory of a person or historical event.
Restore: to make something look like it did when it was new.
Riddle: a question that requires cleverness to answer.
Statue: a person, animal, or thing made from wood, stone, or metal.
Strangle: to kill someone by squeezing their neck so they can’t breathe.
Visible: easy to see.
Worship: to show great respect for.